Furious Birmingham councillors only learned of a critical three month delay to part of a troubled multi-million pound IT project when they ‘read about it in Birmingham Live’ – amid fears that taxpayers will now have to foot an even bigger bill as a result.
A special emergency meeting was called by the council as a result of our expose.
Members there berated officials and Labour leaders, claiming the episode made a mockery of claims of ‘openness and transparency’ at the beleaguered council.
One member, Conservative councillor Richard Parkin, said he was ‘extremely angered and frustrated’ as he claimed: “If the Birmingham Mail (BirminghamLive) had not written a story we would be blissfully unaware even now.
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“This episode shows more delays, a lack of openness, concerns rebuffed and a lack of oversight.”
But senior officers denied any wrongdoing and said the story broke before councillors were informed due to ‘an unfortunate series of timing issues’.
The special meeting of the council’s audit committee was held, at short notice, earlier this week, Monday September 22.
Our original story revealed that insiders at the council had warned how a critical element of the council’s ‘Oracle Fusion’ finance, HR and IT system implementation had failed testing and was now months behind schedule.
They also warned of a potential knock on impact on the entire scheme – with every delay costing taxpayers more.
Angry councillors were furious to learn of the delay through the media and not direct from officers, claiming it had echoes of previous failings, when they were routinely kept in the dark during a previous disastrous attempt to launch the same project.
Council executive finance director Carol Culley
But the council’s executive finance director Carol Culley denied wrongdoing and said internal governance processes had been followed. There had been every intention to inform all councillors once a revised timetable for the project had been agreed, she said.
She voiced her disappointment that someone inside the council had ‘gone outside our processes’ to speak to the media. “I have been working hard to try and build a culture where people feel able to talk to myself and others if there are concerns,” she said.
An all-staff meeting had been held to air any concerns since, with follow up meetings planned, she added.
Oracle project director Philip MacPherson told the meeting: “There is no attempt to hide or obfuscate on this project.”
But he admitted the critical Income Management System, or IMS, would not now go live until November, months after its original planned launch.
Tory councillor Meirion Jenkins told the meeting: “This is a council that was going to buy an Oracle implementation for £19 million and we’re now running at £170 million.
“There is an issue brought to light, and officers are again telling us ‘don’t worry, it’s in hand, you don’t need to worry your heads about the detail of it. I think we do need to worry our heads.”
Cllr Paul Tilsley, Lib Dems, Sheldon, told the meeting that he was more concerned with the risk of more delays.
READ MORE: Emergency meeting called after delays to Birmingham council’s troubled IT system exposed
“The seriousness of the situation, despite the good governance, is that we have saddled the good citizens of Birmingham, each and every one of them, with £150 worth of debt – and we still don’t have a working system. I am frankly very angry,” he said.
The overarching project – now renamed Brindley Oracle – is subject to intensive scrutiny and oversight because the previous attempt to launch the cloud-based software ended in disaster.
What was meant to cost £19 million and move the council from an antiquated ‘SAP’ system to a modern cloud based service has since racked up a bill of more than £170 million and rising and is still not ready, five years on.
External auditor Mark Stocks, of Grant Thornton, said officers had been upfront with him that the project was slipping, adding: “I believe they had every intention of reporting it to councillors, it is just timing.
“What’s different this time is officers have made the decision to delay, appropriately made the decision to delay, where before they just continued without proper rigour.”
He added: “I fully understand your concerns around costs and that will always be a driver for the council. But as you know from experience it will cost you far more if you rush this and get it wrong so you have to view this as a new IT system and implement it with the expertise of your professionals.”
While government commissioner Myron Hrycyk, overseeing the project independently, added: “It is a complex financial implementation and it is right to be cautious.
“I have urged the officers to put quality above speed, that’s really important. If you rush at this to save some funds you will pay for it multi times over to put it right.
“I have seen hundreds of these programmes and you have good governance in this one.”